Miss Bianca and the "Cute little element"

Miss Bianca came back from her coaching seminar refreshed and ready to deal with the oldest student on freestyle (ME!).

"Today we're going to learn side toe hops!" She said cheerfully as she positioned me at the boards. This is another one of her string of "cute little elements".

"Is this something from your coaching seminar?" I asked.

"No," she said, "This is my own development torture."

Well, she didn't actually say the word 'torture', she actually said 'own development skill'.  Anyway, it's supposed to build up my quadriceps. And probably help with my timidity. And maybe get me ready for the dread bunny hop.

I just can't hold these. No matter how hard I try. I think it's because there's no ankle support in my boots since my boot tongue isn't wide enough. I have legs like tree trunks from horseback riding and I lost the nice ankles genetic lottery too. (new boots enroute have a custom tongue!). 

I did learn some important lessons.
a. REALLY bend the knees
b. REALLY up on those toe picks!
d. DON'T CROSS THE SKATES!

And this is where the problem begins. My body kept trying to cross the skates. It was if my boots were cursed.

NOOoOOO!!!!!!

 Toe in  - Hop - Push off. That's what's supposed to happen.

What my body wanted to do was:

Toe in - Hop  over -- push off.

Although I  never did cross the boots in side toe hop practice, apparently it lingered in my muscle memory.

 Fifteen minutes later when I was doing fast crossovers, I toepicked in hard in the cross, rolled across the ice after slamming into my hip, jammed my wrist guard, and flopped around like a fish. I did get up and do the pattern again though. So yes, I got back up on that horse.

Hey, I did this over a jump once!

I'm sooooo ordering hip pads from skatingsafe.com this week!